Over the past year we have had hundreds of enquiries but for me, one of the most popular enquiries has been what I think is necessary to take on a long trip.

As a young woman, the thought of traveling Europe for 12 months was so exciting but the thought of being away from my home comforts was somehow slightly daunting. After returning from our trip I have come to one conclusion, I ended up taking way too much! I massively over estimated how little you can actually live with (or without).

The Scandinavian Peninsula was the first region we had planned to visit and this threw a spanner in the works as to what clothing I would be taking. I didn’t want to get caught out by bad weather so packed as much winter gear as I could tightly squeeze into a plastic stacking box. Ultimately after spending 8 weeks traveling through Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland the only proper winter clothing I wore was:

Everything else was just made up of simple t-shirts and polo neck jumpers/hoodies. So in reality, I would say if you are visiting/traveling through the colder countries, limit yourself to the above as you really won’t need as much as you think!

As for the warmer climates, I wore even less! Forget about the bulky items as you just won’t wear them. There are plenty of places to do your washing and in countries such as Greece/Bulgaria and Morocco you are able to wash your clothes out by hand on most beaches. I would maybe consider taking the following, this is only based on my experience and I suppose some of this comes down to the weather and own preference:

We both really enjoy walking/and in places such as Norway and Slovakia the walks on offer in the beautiful mountains and countryside are in abundance, which meant I took far too many different types of footwear. I would recommend for the whole trip:

I also took my UGG boots on our Europe Trip which I wore quite a lot through the colder countries like Norway; however they did get banished to the storage box as soon as we hit Finland with unexpected temperatures of 25c in May.

Every woman is different but I preferred not to wear any makeup whilst traveling. I did take my makeup bag with me and on the odd occasion I did put some makeup on for going out etc. Other than this, especially in hot countries, I wouldn’t bother. One thing that I didn’t consider would take up so much room in our Adria Twin was Contact Lenses; I had a year’s supply of these things and trust me, they take up quite a lot of room.

There isn’t a lot of advice out there for women traveling via this method of transportation and at the end of the day, I found anything that I forgot to take, I could usually pickup anywhere in Europe.

Also, just before we left in April 2011 Adam fitted and installed a 2100W Inverter mainly for me to dry my hair. This really came in useful whilst driving through Denmark, Sweden and Norway. It was great to wash my hair in a morning and be able to dry it straight away, especially when temperatures were a cool 2c outside and 6c in the van.
I hope that this mini guide has given you some advice which will help you when packing to go away in the future, be it a short or long journey. If you would like to ask me any questions just drop me an email.

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What a good idea to write this, Sophie- I've been asked loads of times what I take when I go away. My advice for warmer places has been to take loose stuff and comfy footwear. Your feet always get hot and it's better to be comfy. I love my little cotton and lycra dresses with fitted tops and shoestring straps- they are always cool, can look good for nights out, dry in no time and don't need ironing.The trouble is that I'm wearing one or the other in all my blog photos! I've solved that problem now- I bought another one! ( Mantaray at Debenhams and they suit just about every shape http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10001_10001_073011615541_-1?breadcrumb=Home~txtmantaray+dress ) I don't earn anything by advertising them though.

Great tips...my family and I are currently journeying through Europe in a Motorhome (with two little girls in tow). We are 4 months into an 8 month journey. We recently had my mother in law join us in our Motorhome and she found the best way to dry her hair was to sit in the front seat with the heater on full blast...perhaps not so easy as a hair dryer, but it worked. Love your blog by the way...I checked it out quite a few times as we were planning our trip. Check ours out if you like, theblaikiefamily.blogspot.com

love the site, so informative! I would also add take a maxi dress and a light shawl/sarong type thing. Maxi dress very useful for wandering around very hot cities where you don't want to have too much flesh on show. Combine with a shawl that you can use to cover head and shoulders in cathedrals and you can't go too far wrong. Shawl/wrap also good for beach to bar, getting caught out when the sun goes down or for covering up when sun too hot and you forgot the sun cream :)have a look at our blog if you like for some misadventures of our first (under researched and wonderful) attempt at motor homeing ... jonoush.blogspot.com off again in a month, possibly full time... zooom!!!!!